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Topic: the old pubs of brum (Read 512230 times)

in the late 50 and early 60s pubs in brum was much the same has they had been for a long time some had a smoke room some had a snug beer was about two bob a point(10p) so if you had ten bob (50p) you could go out and get peed out of your head fish and chips was about one shilling and six pence ( 8p) but most of us only got about 7 pound aweek now what pubs did you use can you name the pubs in town and the ones just out side of town and if you could Chang pubs today how would you Chang them did you ever meet a girl in a pub did you ever get bard and if so why

If there was one thing I was able to do well, it was drink not a thing to brag I know but who amongst us does not have issues in their past they are not proud of. I have frequented pubs in the city centre, I have frequented pubs in the suburbs, I have drank in night clubs, working mens clubs, drinkers and shebeens. In fact I have drank everywhere and anywhere you could buy a drink.

That being said my first pint cost me 1/1d and it was in the Sportsman, Saltley Rd, Neachells and it was bloody awful, but I soon acquired a taste for it. I remember going to the Bowling Alley & Ice rink not long after it opened and my mates played bowling while I stood at one of the little side bars and drank a measure of everything on the price list from top to bottom and because I still felt sober I restarted at the bottom working my way up.

Everything was great until I got outside into Edgbaston Street. I must have fell in love with the pavement, because the next thing I knew I was flat on my face kissing it. Such happy memories.

i to used to go to the icerink but i used to drink in the heartbeat club on top of the rink but one of the pubs i used most was the bulls head on the cov road at haymill good dance hall there one more i used but can not remember the name but it was all most at the top of hill street pulse the gray hound and the camp at camphill the rum runner Abagael's Rebeca's to name but a few and Meany aweekend iv had a few to Meany and ended up at the tea stand out side snowhill

It's funny, but I could never ice skate, as much as I tried, I could never keep upright, my legs would go all over the place, but rollerskateing well thats an other matter, ( for me, it's four on the floor, not one on the edge,), but I wish I could have ice skated, ( you got a better type of dolly bird back then,),

I used to use the Hearbeat as well, but I used to get in and out pretty early because later on it used to fill up a bit. What annoyed me was the owners had exactly the same building in Bristol, bowling alley, skating ring and Hearbeat Club, but I had to rejoin to get in there.

I also used the Rum Runner, but we always went over the road to the Towrope after for a bite to eat, it used to be pretty lively in there in the middle of the night,

The Crown in Station Street used to do a good dance upstairs at weekends, when we came out of there we used to nick round the back to Alex's if there weren't too many of those rough bikers sorts . I never used to roller skate or ice skate, well not like some of my mates could. I had enough trouble walking.

i went in the black horse on the Stratford road sparkbrook one night and it was full of Mick's my life did i have a skin full and out side there was a fight between two big big Mick's they stood toe to toe blow for blow and the police come down the one policeman hit a Mick over the head with his stick that did not stop him but in the end the two Mick's went off as friends

Other dances I visited in pubs during my misspent youth were, The Mermaid Sparkhill, The Stratford Arms Kyrwicks Lane, The Blakesley Yardley, The Custard House Bordesley Green, The New Inns Balsall Heath,The Crown & Cushions Perry Barr. The list goes on but I'll leave it there for now.

It seems that every pub with a function room had a dance at the weekend, If you were a young full blooded lad and you wanted to pull (ladies please excuse the terminology) you had to be at one of them.

My local in Balsall Heath/ Sparkbrook was the Talbot in Larches Street, I suppose I drank in there as a regular from about from about 1967 until is closed in the early eighties. In the last ten years it probably had as many gaffers, because the brewery in its wisdom made it into a training pub for trainee gaffers.

We used to drink in the little smoke room that fronted Larches St, some nights it was like being at home with your family and friends, because that was all that used the room. If a stranger came in the pub they would use the bar, Its not that we were unfriendly its just that there was never any room left for anyone else.

What pub can say that today, the few that I have been in during the last few years have always been nearly empty, unless it has been in the city. I think the day of the pub is over.

When I worked in the City I used to drink at a pub on the corner of Steelhouse Lane and Newton street. Forget its name but I knew it as 'Gilhooleys' (Sp?) Anyone recall it?

Many a Friday evening I have flown home in a partial haze from the bar there.

I've not used a pub for some twenty odd years now and clubs, I guess some thirty. The prices they began charging together with my growing older decided me a glass at home was just as refereshing. Sad ain't I.

I think you are talking about The Queens Head, heres a picture of what it used to look like. I think I only ever drank in there once. When our firm demolished the parapet wall on the roof of the buildings that ran from next to the pub right round Priory Circus to Corporation St. I think that was in the late seventies. Which was a long time after this photo. It look like the buildings were still yet to be built.